News briefs and information from Federal agencies and Capitol Hill on government activities, legislation, and grants of interest to the telemedicine, telehealth, and health IT community. Edited by Carolyn Bloch.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Proposals Sought for CCTP

The “Partnership for Patients” a new national partnership has been funded for $1 billion with $500 million of that funding available through the “Community-based Care Transitions Program” (CCTP) to provide services. The objective is to effectively manage transitions for Medicare beneficiaries from acute to community-based settings.

CMS is now accepting applications to participate in the CCTP to not only improve transitions from inpatient hospital settings to other care settings, but specifically to improve quality of care, to reduce readmissions for high risk beneficiaries, and to document measurable savings.

Community-based organizations and acute care hospitals partnering with community based organizations can now submit applications for the funding. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis and will be made as funding permits.

Applicants for the funding must identify root causes for readmissions and define their strategies for identifying high risk patients. Applicants must also specify care transition interventions that include strategies for improving provider communications in care transitions.

In addition to the CCTP funding and in coordination with stakeholders from across the healthcare system, the CMS Innovation Center will fund up to $500 million to support new demonstrations related to reducing hospital-acquired conditions. These collaborative models will help hospitals adopt effective interventions to improve patient safety.

The CMS Innovation Center will help hospitals adapt effective evidence-based care improvements to target preventable patient injuries on a local level and help to develop innovative approaches and then share these strategies with public and private partners.

Key research reports:

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